63% of Polish banks will develop a green product offer in the coming year

Almost 2/3 of the banks (63%) intend to focus their activities in the area of ​​sustainable development on the development of their green product offer, according to the report "Green finances in Polish" prepared by PwC Polska. 75% of the banks will focus on implementing ESG laws and guidelines and 69% on implementing ESG strategies.

None of the banks surveyed intend to punish their customers by increasing their loan costs if their planned investments or the entire business are still considered" dirty ", instead they focus on encouraging the implementation of ESG. At the same time, half of them plan to offer customers additional services supporting their transformation. Most importantly, 81% of the surveyed institutions do not expect a change in plans or the intensity of work assumed in the area of ​​sustainable development and the adopted ESG strategy, according to the report.

According to the report, the group of banks that had not yet analyzed the loan portfolio in terms of meeting the ESG criteria decreased from 43% in the previous year to 25% in 2022. All surveyed banks introduced elements of sustainable financing in their product offer, and over 80% in business strategy and administration processes (i.e. purchasing, internal organization - e.g. paperless policy, waste segregation, energy and water saving).

"The topic of ESG risk management is relatively new to the banking sector. Therefore, the implementation of initiatives related to it presents us with many challenges. One of them is the standardization of solutions and their transparency, making it possible to compare the data disclosed by banks," said the president of ING Bank Śląski, Brunon Bartkiewicz.

81% of entities plan to extend their offer with new credit products in the field of sustainable financing, the report also stated.

"Banks are responsible for approx. 80% of financing investments in Poland. The question of their role in the transformation of the economy towards climate neutrality is therefore a rhetorical question. The financial sector has the tools to have a real impact on this process," said President of BNP Paribas Polska Przemysław Gdansk.

In the coming year, 69% of the banks plan to take into account the impact of ESG factors on the processes and risk profile in a quantitative manner in their credit risk management - this is an increase of over 10 percentage points. compared to the previous year, according to the report.

"Santander Bank Polska wants to play an important role in the transformation of the Polish economy into a low-carbon economy. Supporting green investments is an important element of our care for the climate and the environment. Green financing provided by companies from the Santander Polska Group in 2021 amounted to over PLN 1,714 million," he said president of Santander Bank Polska Michał Gajewski

The greatest challenge remains, indicated also in 2021, the lack or limited availability of data on contractors in the field of ESG (94% of respondents).

The survey research took place in May and June 2022. The questions were answered anonymously by 16 institutions whose assets amount to over 70% of the balance sheet total of the Polish banking sector.

Source: PwC and ISBnews